April 3, 2026
By Alex Rubin

If winning a championship is one of the hardest things to do in any sport, it is even harder to win two. Though it has not been that long since the UFA saw a repeat champion (The New York Empire were the last team to win back-to-back titles during the 2022 and 2023 seasons), every season a defending champion returns aiming to reclaim their title, and more times than not they fail.

Bringing back most of their title-winning roster, the Boston Glory are aiming to be the third franchise (in addition to the 2014 and 2015 Oakland Spiders) to accomplish the difficult feat of winning back to back titles. “We have the blueprint of what we need to do to reach Championship Weekend,” 2025 MVP Tobe Decraene said, acknowledging that the Glory do not need to change a whole lot to replicate last season’s success. 

The only thing that really changed is the team’s collective experience. “Winning is something you need to learn. So winning at the highest level is an experience everybody has now,” Decraene added. “There's a little more confidence now, a little more know-how, of how we should reach the top spot.”

Even with that title-winning experience, the Glory have leaned into their familiar routines even as a franchise looking to start sustaining their first bite at success. “Obviously, we're trying to win,” team captain Peter Boerth said. “We're trying to win every game. We're trying to go back to back. But I wouldn't say that the fact that we're defending champs has altered our offseason plans.”

While the Glory are in a position to potentially repeat as champions, such success is rare. In 12 seasons with returning champions, just the two aforementioned teams (2023 New York and 2015 Oakland) won the whole thing again. Three teams (2025 Minnesota, 2021 New York, and 2014 Toronto) returned to the title game but could not win the championship. Two teams returned to Championship Weekend, but lost in the semifinal round (2022 Carolina and 2017 Dallas). Just one team (2024 New York) made the playoffs but could not advance past the divisional round. Four teams missed the playoffs entirely (2019 Madison, 2018 San Francisco, 2016 Oakland, and 2013 Philadelphia). 

As many of those previous champions were failing to win their second, the Glory for much of their history could only dream of joining them. Up until they actually pushed through their ceiling and won the title last season, Boston’s reputation was that of an underachiever. Despite fielding incredibly skilled rosters, the Glory did not find success commensurate with their talent for several years after their 2021 debut season. 

The Glory’s inaugural roster was packed with players like Brendan McCann, Tannor Johnson-Go, and Ben Sadok who played big roles in their 2025 title. Years of practicing together, building consistency, and adjusting to the UFA ruleset paid off with last season’s title. Now that the team has fully arrived as a championship team, the Glory won’t be able to hide the weight of external expectation any more.

Among Glory players, though, last year’s title is not changing the team’s approach to the 2026 season. “We're not trying to put any pressure on it,” Boerth said. “Obviously, going back to back is really hard and would be really special, but I think we're just really focused on the group that we have this year, and trying to do the best that we can.” But for opponents, the new banner that should be on display at Hormel Field this summer will be impossible to ignore.

With plenty of film available from multiple camera angles in high-leverage games, Boston’s opponents will be sharpening their scouting reports, aiming to take down the champs. A late season slump last year before the playoffs may provide a blueprint for teams looking to find strategies that could slow down the dynamic Boston attack. 

But, with every change comes a counter-adjustment. Boston unlocked their offense late last season by shifting downfield destroyer Jeff Babbitt to the backfield. Babbitt finished the championship game 36/36 with 101 throwing yards and -54 receiving yards; with Decraene and Orion Cable taking charge downfield, he just needed to always be available to keep the disc moving. Without the threat of stalling out, the rest of Boston’s players were free to operate for as long as they needed to in order to get open.

Just as the Glory got creative to turn one of the most dominant downfield players in UFA history into a backfield role player, the rest of the teams in the league are expected to deploy creative schemes to stop something that was so obviously effective as the coaching and strategic battle goes back and forth.

The Glory too will change and evolve compared to last season. Despite bringing back most of the same players, the Glory do have some significant personnel changes that will naturally impact their strategy. 

“Things are going to change organically,” Decraene said, “but we have to figure out how we're going to be able to do similar things with different players. We’re losing two big defensive contributors; we're gaining Frankie [Fernandez], Thomas [Edmonds], my brother [Lander Decraene]. So there's going to be a shift in personnel. So we just need to be able to figure out who we're going to put where or where everybody's going to make the most impact on the field.”

That’s right, this season the Glory will feature two Decraene’s with the younger Lander joining MVP Tobe in Boston. “It's gonna be awesome to play with him,” Tobe said. “I think he's one of the most underrated players in Europe right now. Being able to showcase his talent to the world is going to be huge for him.”

The Glory also have to figure out where to slot in Edmonds. The former Thunderbirds and Breeze handler has experience playing on both O- and D- lines, and can operate as the centerpiece of a line or as a complementary addition. 

“He's fitting in amazing, so it's going to be awesome to see what he's able to do on the field,” Decraene said. “He's super versatile, so we can pretty much put him in any position, and I think he would be able to make a big impact.”

And, of course, we will see what other evolution takes place in Boston’s existing core of talent. Though already decorated a both league MVP and Championship Weekend MVP, Decraene is still young and developing as a player. 

“Every off season, I work on a couple of different things that I want to add to my game,” he said. “And this year, I did exactly the same. I won't give away yet what that is, but I've definitely been working hard.” Boerth, Simon Carapella, Oscar Graff, and Turner Allen all likewise are still growing into their full potential, especially with full offseasons to focus on improvement specific to their professional roles now that their college careers are over.

As Boston improves, so do their challengers. In the East Division, the New York Empire brought in Alex Atkins and Daan De Marrée among other instant-impact players as they try to regain top status in the division. While the DC Breeze lost Edmonds among a few other key pieces, the Breeze are also a super young team with lots of natural improvement expected from their many players with plus potential. 

“It's a super competitive division,” Boerth said. “I don't think you can take any team for granted this year.”

In interdivisional play, the Glory will travel to Minnesota to compete against the Wind Chill in a title game rematch, presenting another potential road block as part of a daunting schedule. The Wind Chill added two All Defense First Team players in Lukas Ambrose and Noah Coolman (each of whom also has led the Association in blocks for a whole season) to bolster their own championship aspirations.

“Playing in Minnesota is going to be awesome,” Decraene said. “I've seen clips of their stadium. I've seen clips of their fans. Obviously, there were over 1,000 fans in Madison [last Championship Weekend] for Minnesota all decked out in their colors, so it was pretty sick to see.”

Ahead of a challenging season, the Glory should build confidence not just as defending champions, but also as the architects of an embracing team culture that has done as well as anyone in the league at developing young talent into stars. With lots of players from local colleges matriculating into professional play, the Glory’s ability to keep these players involved and invested in their team and their community speaks to the team’s potential for long term success. 

While other teams are losing these kinds of players to other teams (Carolina’s Tobias Brooks attends university in Colorado and Atlanta’s Will Selfridge is in school in Utah just to give a few examples), Boston is retaining their similar players like Graff, Carapella, Jason Tapper, Zach Singer, and Boerth. 

“I could not picture myself playing for a different team,” Boerth said. “I was maybe going to move across the country for grad school after this year, and decided against it. One of the main, main factors was Boston ultimate.”